Signal failure leads to cancellation of 90 trains on WR

At 11.45am, the cables connecting the signals around Malad station went red, a WR official said, adding, “Though the exact cause is still unknown, railway authorities suspect that the ongoing works at the site might have caused this disruption.”

Mumbai: More than 90 trains were cancelled, and 210 trains were delayed after a signal failure at Malad railway station on the Western Railway (WR) on Tuesday. This is the second incident in two days where technical failures have occurred on the Churchgate-Virar route.

Seeing the crowd swell, WR engineers decided to lay new cables instead of repairing the faulty ones. “We connected the signalling system with an entirely new set of cables. It was a time-consuming process, and it was done while the train movement was on,” the WR official said. (HT PHOTO)

At 11.45am, the cables connecting the signals around Malad station went red, a WR official said, adding, “Though the exact cause is still unknown, railway authorities suspect that the ongoing works at the site might have caused this disruption.”

The glitch was rectified at 5.40pm. During the six hours, a massive commotion broke out on WR as commuters were stranded.

In the initial few hours, the WR official said, they were struggling to find the faulty cable at Malad. These cables were controlling the Up (towards Churchgate) and Down (towards Virar) rail lines on fast and slow corridors.

Seeing the crowd swell, WR engineers decided to lay new cables instead of repairing the faulty ones. “We connected the signalling system with an entirely new set of cables. It was a time-consuming process, and it was done while the train movement was on,” the WR official said.

During this period, trains halted between Kandivali and Malad stations as signals were red and trains had to run at ‘A-marker’. In such cases, motormen have to stop before the signal, halt for some time and then leave slowly. The WR official said, “The work was scheduled to be completed by 4pm, but it was completed at 5.40pm. They were correcting the issue on the four lines and gave it a go-ahead only when they found it safe for train running.”

Commuters complained about their trains running late by 30 to 60 minutes or even more.